It’s my Parting Shot for my Monday Musings…..
When will some curlers ever learn?! I’m watching this morning’s draw at the Montana’s Brier and Jayden King of Ontario has a difficult last rock shot to score one on the fifth end against Brad Jacobs’ defending champions. The recent Olympic gold medallists were lying three – shot stone on the button, second shot at about 5 o’clock in the eight foot circle and third shot at 12 o’clock almost totally in the 12-foot ring, perfectly guarding shot stone. King wanted to play back ring weight, come around the front counter and bump shot stone back about three feet to count one and cut into Jacobs’ 3-0 lead. However, King was heavier than back ring weight and, rather than leaving it run on its own and, hopefully, slowing down and catching the curl as we used to do in the good ‘ol days, King and his third called for one brusher to make the stone curl. All that did was hold it out and the shot slipped through the rings without touching anything, leaving Jacobs a steal of three. You have to know how to “carve” stones to make them curl and the King team – along with most who don’t play in all the Grand Slam events – don’t have the ability to make stones curl with brushing along the outside or inside edge of the running surface! Again, brushing stones that are wide or heavy and hoping they’ll curl almost never works!!
Two things about the Blue Jays and spring training baseball that I’ve deciphered – one, Toronto and Detroit are fit to be tied! Two games and two 4-4 ties after nine innings, called because all pitchers scheduled to pitch in the game had done so and reached their pitch count limit. Two, thank goodness this is spring training as the Jays are only 2-and-6 – aside from the two ties!!
Something I hadn’t taken note of, until I heard about it this morning on T-S-N SportsCentre – only three points separates Edmonton from Toronto overall. But, the Oilers’ 66 points has them in third place in the Pacific Division and in a playoff spot in the weakest group in the N-H-L – while the Maple Leafs’ 63 points has them tied for last with Florida in the uber-competitive Atlantic Division. Doesn’t seem fair or right, does it?! But, that’s the format used by the N-H-L, so don’t cry – or gloat, quite frankly!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
